Asian stocks fall after Wall Street sell-off

Asian markets slumped Thursday morning, with the benchmark indexes in Shanghai, Hong Kong and Tokyo tumbling nearly 4 percent in the wake of a sell-off in US equities.

Markets in Asia fell in line with their US counterparts, as Dow Jones sank 3.2 percent while Nasdaq plunged 4 percent on Wednesday, triggered by US President Donald Trump describing US interest rate hikes as “crazy” and IMF lowering its estimate on global growth forecast.

In Australia, the benchmark S&P/ASX200 index closed down 2.74 percent yesterday, suffering its biggest one-day decline since February.

"In a move reminiscent of the decline in February earlier this year the trigger point seems to be the sharp rise in US Treasury yields. However, this time there is an additional overhang of an extended trade confrontation between the US and China," said Aditya Pugalia, director, financial markets research, Emirates NBD.